Chief Executive Officer of the Petroleum Commission, Egbert Faibille Jnr. is calling on academic institutions to tailor the curricula to prepare graduates for the job market.

According to him, most companies prefer to employ expatriates rather than Ghanaians because the locals are unable to match their qualifications with skills on the field.

Speaking at the maiden edition of the Upstream Job Role Localisation Conference, Mr. Faibille Jnr. urged companies to emulate his outfit by providing learning opportunities for graduates and called on educational institutions to practicalise courses.

“As much as it is now a global village and having expatriates coming in, the truth and the stark reality is that, the cost of bringing expatriates, living and working here is passed on to Ghana when crude liftings are being done. As much as we want to work with international partners, we also need to deliberately train our own people so that with time they can take over the expatriate roles,” he said.

Meanwhile, Deputy Energy Minister, Herbert Krapa disclosed that plans are underway to implement the Human Resource Localisation Policy to make graduates employable.

“We will continue to implement the Accelerated Oil and Gas Capacity Building Programme. We’ll ensure the utilisation of local expertise in the procurement of local goods and services. Also, we will establish a National Petroleum Technology Institute to develop Ghanaian technological research capabilities for the petroleum industry".

"The petroleum commission deserves acknowledgement for its proactiveness to work with the Ministry of Energy to develop a policy on localisation". I can assure that the Ministry is fully in support of the implementation of this all important policy so that it sees the light of day.

The Petroleum Commission oversees the Accelerated Oil and Gas Capacity Building Programme aimed at training youth in the upstream sector.

A beneficiary, Elizabeth Sam said, “Now I have a job because of the internship programme which led me to my employer. It has been a really wonderful experience because the company I went to paid attention to the programme and assisted me in gaining the skills I have now".

The 2023 Upstream Job Role Localisation Conference was themed “Utilising Trained Ghanaian Technicians to Achieve Job Role Localisation in the Petroleum Upstream Sector”.